Props to Zerohedge (the best English-language financial news aggregation service in existence anywhere) for the heads up. ...the major factor driving credit quality is the relatively high level of debt and the difficulty in significantly cutting spending. We are taking a negative action not based on the delay in raising the debt ceiling but rather [...]
The chart below is "Total Credit Market Debt Owed," direct from the Federal Reserve's graphical web interface "Fred Graph." Anyone can see that the graph had gone parabolic right before the onset of the Great Recession. Anyone can see that this rate of ever-faster accumulation of debt couldn't continue. And, it didn't continue, it stopped. [...]
Watching TV while eating lunch today inspired this rant. Relevant ideas for your consideration: The budget "cuts" are compounded over ten years, but the debt ceiling raise is just until it gets used up again. So when they talk about "$2 Trillion in cuts and $2 Trillion in debt ceiling increase" what they mean is [...]
Props to Legal Insurrection for the post: "The only way for Obama to stimulate the enormous private sector job growth needed to ensure Obama’s reelection is for Obama to announce he is not running for reelection, which would unleash a wave of investment and economic activity not seen since the Great Depression."
What arrogance; what ego. As a recruiting tool for Tea Party-minded folks, he's too good to be true. Your fence-sitting friends need to see this.
Bloomberg: "House Speaker John Boehner said he agrees that the U.S. debt limit must be raised and the government can’t be allowed to default on its debts, but he also said Democrats are not serious enough about trimming entitlement programs." I imagine the discussion at the White House went something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK-sSWkJUaQ&feature=related
What will you do with your new-found liberty? Many of us will find it bracing and exhilarating. Many others will hate it with every fiber of their being. The basis for these very disparate reactions will be the same: you will be on your own. We had better be making provisions to save the Commonwealth [...]
That's the message you should see whenever they say "We're going to punt this problem until after the next election." It means they are going to do something the voters really hate, and so they hope to be able to make you forget what they did by the time another two years passes. It means [...]
T-Bill rates now negative, general collateral at 1 (ONE!) basis point (=0.01% interest). Negative interest rates mean that you are willing to pay someone to hold your money on the belief that you will get your money back less a storage fee. Capital is going into hiding at a frenetic pace. Negative short term rates [...]
Budget negotiations are reportedly closing in on a deal to cut the federal deficit and then raise the debt ceiling. Bloomberg focuses on a big number and then, later, tells you that the cuts will happen over ten years. In other words, the dealmakers are going to cut a few hundred $Billion per year from [...]
Tell it to these folks: Rising food costs spur massive US theft of produce, meat Sunday, April 17, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer Forget diamonds and cash. Rapid inflation and the tanking US economy have birthed a whole new wave of organized crime involving food. The New York Times (NYT) reports that a [...]
From "The Hill": The Senate on Thursday will resume consideration of S. 679, a bill to streamline the presidential appointment process, and is expected to vote around noon on amendments offered by Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Jim DeMint (R-SC). Vitter's amendment would end the ability of the White House to appoint policy "czars," and [...]
